Already two weeks Costa Rica

Hi All,

How are you doing?

I realized I haven´t written anything since I am in Costa Rica and I had a very good time. I have been here for already almost two weeks now! It is completely different from Panama, there are so many people, so many tourists, a lot is in English and everything is very very accesible and nicely done. In the beginning I felt very sad to have left Panama, but now I have accepted the prices, which are extremely high, the people, who are only thinking business and are not half as friendly as the Panamanians, the buses, which are boring because there is no music, and the tourist orientated atmosphere. But now I am acting like a real tourist, I feel like a moviestar surrounded with luxury and I am enjoying it!!!!

The first couple of days I stayed in a lovely small beachtown, Cahuita,  on the Carribean coast and the wheather was great!!! There is a nice walking trail (I expected a rough hike again, but it was a gentle stroll) to see lizards, monkeys, snakes, squirrels and very nice beachviews! We also tried to go on a snorkelling tour, but the ocean was not clear and the current too strong, so we layed on the beach instead, with the howler monkeys in the background, very exotic! And I met some very nice people, we had fun! With a Spanish guy and a Italian girl we drove to another place on the beach one night for a drink. On the way over a racoon crossed the street right before us and on the way back we stopped in Puerto Viejo where we saw a sloth very close to the street, eating, yawning and scratching himself, amazing!

I would have liked to stay longer, but I couldn´t wait to go and see my friend Carla, with whom I lived in Venezuela. She is staying in San Jose with her Costa Rican husband, Rodrigo. It was so great to see her again after 3 years! It felt so normal, like it was yesterday that I left Venezuela. We had a lot of fun, relaxing, eating, chatting a lot. We also went to the beach a couple of days, where Rodrigo´s parents have a house. It was incredible, so beautiful, at a pivate gorgeous beach with a couple of natural swimming pools formed by rocks and many different coloured fish. The house was very pretty, with a jacuzzi and beachview. The next day we stayed in another house, which was even more beautiful, with tropical gardens, a jacuzzi and a swimming pool with a better view of the ocean. I could not believe I was really there, and it got even better when a couple of beautiful red and blue giant parrots flew over and sat down in the tree in front of us! There are so many animals in this country, we´ve also seen crocodiles, weird spiders and a racoon trying to enter our place to steal food (and today some toucans).

I stayed with Carla for a week and yesterday I travelled to La Fortuna, a nice town in the inlands. There are so many tours that it is hard to choose from. When I arrived in the hostel I met a group of 4 american girls and 3 canadian girls. In the evening we went to hot water springs. It was so much fun! It didn´t look natural, it looked more like a waterpark, with a lot of swimming pools with water of different temperatures and some of them had bars in the pool :) And every pool was surrounded by beautiful exotic palmtrees and other plants. There were also 2 waterslides and I was very nervous, since I don´t remember ever going down on a waterslide before, but it was fun! They were pretty rough, fast and steep, but I wouldn´t have wanted to miss it.

This morning I went with the american girls on a canopy tour, which was also a lot of fun. I didn´t really know what to expect, but we did a great tour with 16 ziplines, the longest one was 430 meters!!! And the views were incredible, going right through the forest or being very high above the ground, I felt like I was flying! In the middle there was also a Tarzan Swing, which was awsome, my throat is still sore from the screaming, but when it was over I couldn´t stop laughing. It is a rope swing, but it´s a bit like a bungee jump, but instead of only going down, you fall down but you also swing back and forth. It is kinda hard to explain, but I bought the disc with the pictures and videos, so you can see it!

Well, that´s all for now, Costa Rica in a nutshell, because I have to get ready for the next tour!

As you can see I added a couple of new folders with photos and hopefully I can upload the Costa Rica photos tomorrow!

Hope you´re all doing ok, enjoying whatever it is you are doing!

Love, Selinde